The Second Sense: A Disneyland Playlist, Part 2

The mission: To assemble the perfect Disneyland playlist, referencing every themed land and major attraction, using only songs and instrumental music that a relative newbie to the hobby would be able to readily find. There's no need to dive into limited-edition multi-disc park soundtracks, the “Disneyland Forever” archives, or the murky depths of torrent streaming.*

Last week, I covered Main Street, USA and Adventureland. This week...the mission continues!

The Second Sense: A Disneyland Playlist, Part 1

In analyzing the new area loop for the Esplanade last week, I got to thinking about what such a music loop is, and the answer was both obvious and food for further thought: it's a themed playlist. Users of Pandora and similar internet radio services will be familiar with this concept—you choose a set of songs (and/or instrumental pieces) to enhance a mood, illustrate a concept, or otherwise adhere to, well, a theme. Think of the mixtapes of “makeout music” people would put together back in the day when tapes were still a thing. Or a student's “study playlist,” comprising songs that help them concentrate on their academic work.

The theme of the Esplanade music loop is, of course, “The Disneyland Resort.” The objective is to give arriving guests a foretaste of the sorts of attractions the two parks offer. I would say it succeeds (even without any reference to the Haunted Mansion), although first-time guests may not pay much attention or connect the rides they go on later with the snippets of music they heard upon arriving. They will probably at least recognize the tunes, and so the loop sets an appropriate “wonderful world of Disney” atmosphere.

We Disneyland fans, of course, like to create our own playlists honoring the park(s). Of course, ours generally consist of music and even non-musical audio taken directly from the attractions, live entertainment, and other experiences within the parks. We scour released albums and the internet for as much genuine Disneyland music as we can lay our hands on, and arrange it geographically, land by land, to create the perfect, comprehensive collection.

My Disneyland playlist easily occupies a 40-hour work week. Not that I'm bragging.

But suppose you didn't have access to all these specialized theme park albums? Suppose you wanted to create a working Disneyland playlist from the much more commonly found Disney film soundtracks and general genre music? Say, one song per significant attraction, maybe another to bring across the ambiance of each land? It wouldn't be 40 hours long, obviously, but it might occupy a long drive. (Such as the drive to Disneyland? Well, that depends on where you live.)

It needn't be completely devoid of park-specific melodies, as many of the more successful songs have been released on Disney compilation albums. Additionally, many of the individual performers and groups that have been stationed at Disneyland over the years have released recordings, some of which are still available.

For the next few weeks, I'll be sharing my version of such a thing. I've had to break it into segments because this post would be unfathomably long otherwise. So here's Part 1—Main Street and Adventureland.

The Second Sense: Esplanade Music Loop Updated!

Pretty short this week, but I've been busy and I'd rather give you something than nothing.

Over a year ago at this point, I did a post focusing on the music loop that plays non-stop in the Disneyland Esplanade. Outside of the winter holiday season, the same one had been in use since the opening of California Adventure, despite numerous changes occurring in both parks that made some tracks irrelevant and invited replacements to hint at the newer attractions.

Well, as of about a week ago, according to reports from my colleagues at Mousebits, the loop has finally been updated! I haven't gotten a chance to hear it yet, but we do have a breakdown of the track list, and in the broad strokes at least, the changes line up with many of my suggestions. Tracks representing attractions which have gone extinct since 2001 have been dropped, and quite a few new ones have been added to illustrate what has debuted in the interim. Beyond that, even many of the melodies that are still relevant have been traded for variations or substitutions. Less than a third of the music from the previous loop remains—a significant transformation!

Imagineering Theory: Thinking Beyond “Rides”

This is probably going to be a controversial opinion, but I think theme park fans get too hung up on rides.

No, not attractions. It's not a theme park—or any kind of leisure destination—without attractions. I do mean rides. I think many theme park fans obsess too much over, specifically, the sorts of attractions that physically move you around, to the point where the other sorts are rarely even discussed in the context of worthwhile things to do during a visit. Sometimes it goes further, to a veiled assertion that the more extreme the movement, the objectively “better” the ride is, but for now I'll stick to the simple dichotomy of ride vs. non-ride.

Isn't that nuts? To care only about rides and not about the many other kinds of attractions boasted at Disney theme parks? These places are known for so much more, but when was the last time you saw an Armchair Imagineer (besides me) attempt to design a parade or a show or even just a nice little nook to rest your feet?

Is it just that the potential variety of rides is more obvious? Do people have a hard time thinking up new twists to put on the other categories of attractions? Well, what kind of Dilettante would I be if I didn't have some ideas in that regard?

Sentimental Paleontology: Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

Well, here we are. The Great California Adventure Mistake of 2017 is live, with reports of a queue stretching all the way to the park's entrance.

Within five minutes of opening.

Every day so far.

Dammit, people. Why are you rewarding them for this? That thing should have opened to the sound of crickets, and not the kind that asks you to recycle your beverage containers.

Dude. This is actually a pin.

Nuts to y'all. I'm going to reminisce about what we lost.

Imagineering Theory: The Range of Mountains

Disney likes to set thrill rides in mountains. One possible reason is pragmatic—the conical shape of a mountain makes a good base structure for a track, and the protruding peak is a natural “weenie” making it easy for guests to find the exciting ride. Another could very well be thematic—mountains are places of adventure. They are the lairs of monsters, the strongholds of villains, things to climb or cross in the name of exploration. A mountain is a semi-self-contained environment, a perfect canvas for the theming that Disney so excels in.

I've identified three key ingredients that make each of Disneyland's “mountains” unique. Each one has a distinctive Setting, an exotic and memorable environment. Its track has a particular characteristic, a Track Quirk, that harmonizes with the setting and imparts a little something more to the kinetic aspect of the ride than a standard roller coaster. And it offers a Threat, turning a simple fast and/or bumpy ride into a story with the riders at the center.

So this week, I'll summarize how the five mountains of the Disneyland Resort use these ingredients, and then propose a couple of entirely new variations on the recipe.

It Came From the Fandom: SALUG Models at Supertrain

It's that time again...that time when I, your humble Dilettante, am short on material and have to turn to my fellow fans to provide content on schedule.

I love backup plans, don't you?

This time around, the subject is...well, it involves LEGO. (This seems to keep happening.) See, there's this organization in Canada called SALUG: the Southern Alberta LEGO User Group. And there's this annual model train convention in Calgary called Supertrain. Since LEGO model trains are a thing, the group has been known to build elaborate model train layouts for the convention.

At least twice, there was a Disneyland fan on deck.

For Supertrain 2005, they ran a train not entirely dissimilar to the good old Disneyland Railroad through a lovingly detailed plastic brick recreation of New Orleans Square and Splash Mountain. The following year, if anything they outdid themselves with a magnificently accurate model of Main Street, including the park's Main Gate, the entrance to Tomorrowland, Sleeping Beauty Castle, and even a sliver of the Fantasyland Courtyard. As a bonus, to the right of the Main Gate they decided to include...well, just have a look!

2005 photos

2006 photos

Sadly, I can't find any evidence that SALUG continued this tradition past 2006. But at least we have these wonderful photos to remember it by. Perhaps someday their example will inspire me to assemble something I wouldn't mind sharing with you!